I just set up my Google home, and integrated smartthings. It imported a thermostat, some switches and lights, yet will not allow me to import my door locks? What gives?
Currently google home is limited to control of switches, bulbs, and thermostats.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/214609826-Google-Home-SmartThings-FAQ
However, you can use virtual switches, just as you can with echo. So you can have a routine that unlocks a lock, have a virtual switch that runs that routine, and tell Google Home to turn on that virtual switch. 
Alternatively, you could use IFTTT with Google home. To be honest, I don’t know if it will let you access a lock directly through the SmartThings service/channel (let us know if you try it and it does) but you could do the same thing to have it turn on the virtual switch. That would give you more flexibility in naming.
1 Like
Thank you! That is somewhat of a lame missing feature, but IFTTT worked great. It just sucks to have to create two routines per lock.
1 Like
One concern people have raised. If you enable voice control of locks, someone could stand outside your house and tell your voice system to unlock the lock. (They could also break a window, so…)
Just something to think about. Go outside and yell at your google to turn on a light. Did it work? If so, it is at least a possibility.
Someone said I shouldn’t set my phone to be able to unlock doors from lock screen without unlocking the phone because if someone fInds my phone they can get in. And I was like, this is different than a key, how? Plus if I lose my phone, I’m much more likely to notice it sooner than my key. I don’t pull out my keys and look at them 90 times per hour.
2 Likes
Yeah, could be a concern, but I am assuming that wit the multi account support, the HOME will recognize the voices of the people connected.
I wouldn’t be so sure. My Echo’s work with anyone who comes over. I would assume Google would be the same.
1 Like
Google Home operates off the Google Now system which is more “fingerprinted” to your voice. Have some friends over that have trained their android phones, say OK Google Now, and most likely only your phone will respond. But I’ve also seen many times where it would respond to others, in noisier environments.
So yes, it may be a bit more specific, but I sure wouldn’t trust it for locks, as a security measure. This isn’t an oversight, Alexa has the same limitation and it’s intentional simply for this reason.
I will only allow voice to lock or close doors, never unlock. If you have a use case where this is REALLY important, make sure your AI isn’t easily heard from outside, or even an open window, or more securely, give the virtual switch some randomly weird name.
Ok Google Now, turn on “the frog just flew” and the door unlocks.
Yeah, that is the current system. The multi account voice support isn’t
released yet. So there is nothing to compare it to yet.
1 Like
Try this combination
Danalock + IFTTT + Google Home
To add security when setting up use a secret word
Like ok google catfish then the door unlocks
Here are some more complete instructions based off advice I have spent over an hour collecting in various threads. I hope this saves someone some time! Also the last steps are to set up a custom activation phrase so you don’t have to start with “turn on…”
-Create a routine to unlock the door
-On https://graph.api.smartthings.com under “My Devices” click “New Device” and create a “Momentary button tile” called “Unlock the front door button”
-Edit your routine to be triggered by the tile
-At this point you can unlock the door by saying “Ok Google, turn on unlock the front door button”
-Go to https://ifttt.com/my_applets and create a new applet. For “if this” link to the Google Assistant service and select “Say a simple phrase”. I recommend you use a code phrase, for example “open sesame”, so someone can’t unlock your door by yelling from outside
-For “then that” select the SmartThings service and have it activate the “Unlock the front door button” tile
Now you can do something similar for locking the door.
3 Likes
Can we get a little more info? I tried using a Z wave switch generic, but that didn’t work for your example. Thanks!
-NM, I finally found the momentary button, as per instruction. duh.
Thanks for the idea!
IFTTT can natively see locks through SmartThings (at least for Kwikset locks). Once you have the lock added to SmartThings, just go to www.ifttt.com and create applets to lock/unlock the locks based on whatever phrase you’d like to say.
Google Home will run these commands for anyone; voice fingerprinting doesn’t matter in this context. From what I’ve found (through use) is that the voice fingerprinting only comes into play for Google services. For example, my wife, both kids, and I have Goodnight routines through Google Home, but they are setup to do different things. It uses voice fingerprinting to figure out which person’s routine to run. It’ll also use voice fingerprinting for commands like “Find my phone” or for playing music through YouTube music (will run the correct playlist based on the person).
From what I can tell though, there’s no differentiation for running SmartThings devices. I have Guest Mode turned off (that will just allow Google Home to use other people’s voice fingerprints that haven’t explicitly been configured in your home). My brother’s girlfriend came to the house yesterday and was able to tell Google Home to lock/unlock both doors. If you want some layer of security, follow the recommendations from above to make the phrase you use with Google Home to something super abstract (e.g. “Hey Google, Russian dolphins are hopping the border wall” to lock)
I use IFTTT to unlock my doors and open my garage but instead of it going directly to the lock or door I have it send a Webhook (Maker) event to WebCoRE and it will only unlock or open the garage if Smartthings is Disarmed. It doesn’t solve the problem of anyone unlocking it, but they wont be able to do it if nobody is home.
1 Like
I have a Yale lever doorlock, exterior with the touchpad… Can’t remember right off what model, but with a switch-button in IFTTT, it works for unlocking the door when I say the code phrase.
I have 2 kwikset locks that were originally connected to a Vivint panel. When I had them in Google home through the Vivint panel, I was able to control them just fine. I just wasn’t able to unlock them with voice control. But now that I have moved them over to a SmartThings hub, they don’t even show up in Google Home. Seems strange to me that it would work with Vivint but not SmartThings. Any ideas why?
The connection between SmartThings and Google Home doesn’t permit locks showing up directly. If you setup an IFTTT account, connect it to SmartThings and Google, you can control your locks that way.
If google disallowed the command “Hey Goog, unlock my door(s)” that would be fine. I hid the functionality behind semantics and goog HAS VOICE recognition…
For quite some time, I had a SmartThings Scene that locked my door and a google routine “Nighty Night” that did that & everything I needed. Goog has started FAILING to lock my doors with an obscure message “Sorry I couldn’t reach SmartThings” which wasn’t true since the lights went off. I finally realized I was leaving my doors unlocked! Google is really sucking. Will Apple solve my problems? I’m ready to switch EVERYTHING over. I’ve already switched once when Alexa stopped support of uploading my own music- and I worked at amazon for 18 years including the Alexa team!